


Country Respite

by Zapphi



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Based on a Dream, Batfamily (DCU), Crack, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Humor, Not Beta Read, Teen rating is for a few curses thrown out, but not on the first chapter, go to a house in the countryside, i dont know if therell be ships later on, i dunno, i guess, i just wrote this because my friends encouraged me, they just
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25063747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zapphi/pseuds/Zapphi
Summary: After a difficult battle the Batfam are out of commission, and so to get out of the Manor they travel to recuperate on a property in the countryside.I'm gonna be real with you guys, this was made because I had a dream in the perspective of Dick Grayson at my own country house and the fam was there and it was really weird to wake up from that so I tweeted it and decided it'd be a dandy idea to write a fanfic with it so, like, here it is. Apparently it's gonna be chaptered because I wanted to write some context and stuff and there's a lot of experiences from my own memory in my country house that I could draw from so we'll see if I keep the ball rolling on this one. The first chapter is kind of a prologue so... Uhh...
Relationships: Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne
Kudos: 12





	Country Respite

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfic is based on a short dream I had where I was Dick Grayson(?) and was part of a short scene and when I woke up and immediately went to tweet the dream (as you do) I decided it’s good fanfic fodder and also at this point in time I just want to be able to create something again because by golly do I need to get stuff out of my system after being stuck at home for forever. Also, I just wanna state the disclaimer that I don’t have much prior experience with these characters, my knowledge comes from me being stuck at home and having way too much time on my hands.. Events in this fic are basically me expanding on the little context of my dream but also making shit up as I go along because I want to make it somewhat entertaining and with a modicum of sense, quality and fun. That being said, I’m only tangentially aware of how long it takes bones to heal and stuff so if anything’s inaccurate you can just kinda whisper it to me and maybe I’ll change it. Or not, I don’t really think it’s important to the (and I use this term loosely) “plot”. If anyone ever finds this… Enjoy, I guess..?

Dick Grayson, vigilante extraordinaire and lifetime acrobat, broke his goddamn leg. In, like, two different places. Fantastic. That happened a month or two ago, give or take (he wasn’t particularly inclined to keep track of time for the period when he was fluctuating between being unconscious and high as a kite on pain meds). It’s not new for someone with his, uhh, nighttime activities and pastime of doing flips whenever the situation deemed it at least semi-appropriate, breaking bones is in the job description. Be that as it may, it’s never fun to be out of commission, especially when most of your life revolves around being up and about, including your family life. All this to say that Dick Grayson was growing antsy, and now that he hasn’t been feeling like death and can no longer keep reading Jay’s collection of old books from his room in the mansion because by God he was done with classic lit for the rest of the decade, he doesn’t really want to stay in this room. Or the mansion. Or anywhere he’s been more than twice.

  
Dick appreciates his family and their patience with him, especially since they’re all benched alongside him for the time being. Oh yeah, did he forget that small detail? The last battle they shared on the field had been merciless, so the mansion had been transformed into a makeshift asylum for the boys of the Bat variety. Mostly. Alfred, bless him, has been speed-walking around the grounds since day one trying to keep them all from going from dubiously sane to batshit crazy (heh) for their recovery period. Well, not all of them were gravely injured, Damian wasn’t in bed for more than a few weeks and Tim got out of the Incident relatively unscathed, but he’d stuck around the mansion afterwards for some unfathomable reason and ended up being roped into helping around by Alfred, the one person no one can ever say no to.

  
The arrangement started out with Dick and Jay being mostly unconscious for the first month of recovery, since they’re both quoted as being self-sacrificing and reckless in differing degrees, proved innumerous times and once more on this occasion. Bruce got himself mildly damaged but bounced back quickly (although probably earlier than recommended by health professionals if consulted) and ended up mostly working from home in the meantime. (Some would say he wanted to be close to his family as they recovered, if asked he wouldn’t deny it, but he would very much look like he’d rather not be there currently verbalizing emotions.)

  
Damian, recovered, was prohibited from vigilante-ing alone, and therefore was very much sulky while inside the mansion for so long. Tim, mostly unharmed and within the grounds, would use half his time doing Tim-things on electronic devices within reach, and the other half doing chores and running errands for Alfred because, unlike Damian, Tim wasn’t always exuding an aura of angst and leave-me-alone-ness. He was almost eager to help Alfred if it meant he had an excuse to be out of the building buying groceries or remaining unavailable for impromptu chats with Dick. The worst kind of chat with Dick, if he was to be believed. Tough crowd.

  
Damian could get out of helping Alfred while Tim was present, but that left abundant free time to be usurped by Dick wanting a distraction, Jay somehow coercing him into fetching him snacks without Alfred knowing; even though Jay didn’t particularly enjoy Cool Ranch chips (but then again we all know this is a ploy to annoy Dick because he can’t find out for the life of him how Jay keeps getting past Pennyworth to the pantry when he can’t; he doesn’t seem to be able to fathom Damian doing anything for Jay, so needless to say that needling strategy works well), or, worse of all, Bruce deciding (stilted and awkward) fatherly bonding was in order after traumatic events in which Damian did not, in fact, feel let down by his father’s decision to leave Damian behind to go help Dick and Jay, he wasn’t even in danger, please just go back to managing your financial empire, father, I am no longer a child and never was defenseless in the first place.

  
Where was he? Ah, yes, bless his family, because by golly was he annoying. He’d get away with stealing Tim away for a few hours to watch movies, or having a decently long but mostly one-sided conversation with Dami, or joining Alfred for tea or in tending a very select part of the garden that seemed to be doing a little worse than the rest, or busting into Jay’s room to try to goad him into social interaction but instead always just leaving with the books Jay already re-read recently, or asking Bruce how his day was and getting a reply but lapsing into awkward silence and then backing away slowly. He got a win when he convinced them all to have family dinners on Sunday, although everyone seemed a little hesitant. He gets it, he isn’t inept at this, he knows being stuck with people in the same house for months on end gets grating, but he’s making an honest effort to bring this family together, damn it, not everyone in this godforsaken mansion can be a broody introvert with a infinite list of things to do. All in all, he understands them, but he needs his social interaction juice to grow big and strong and have healthy bones (as he says that over tea on Thursday, Alfred looks at him empathetically, without a hint of condescension, but remains quiet).

  
So that’s why, after all this time in Wayne Manor limbo, he’s rather shocked to hear Bruce himself say over dinner that they should all pack some bags for a trip. The attention is pulled from the head of the table to the opposite end by Alfred, who butts in, looking entirely unsurprised by this, which means he probably nudged Bruce into it. On Bruce’s front right is Tim, next to him is Damian, across from Damian is Jason, on his right side and on Bruce’s front left is Dick. The butler proceeds to say they’re heading to a country house to try a change of scenery while they’re all forced to recover, and it’ll be a grand opportunity for some (brace for impact) family bonding.

  
A few things proceed to happen in succession. Bruce cringes slightly, but nods stoically, looking like he’s been told he’ll be departing for war, not an impromptu vacation, and forgetting he’s holding a wine glass, which collides with the hand of one Timothy Drake; Tim, scrolling through his phone before his hand is hit, drops it on his pasta plate and lifts his head, eyes unfocused; Damian tries to school his expression to remain very very very unbothered, failing to control his knee in the process when the clattering of the phone startles him, avoiding Jason’s leg but kicking Dick with the force of someone trained to be a deadly assassin since birth who just had to readjust the trajectory of his knee-jerk reaction to not kick someone else’s leg with full force; Dick, still drinking his juice and having his healing leg kicked, spits it out while facing Alfred’s direction, and the seat next to Dick is in fact occupied by Jason, meaning he spits his juice on Jay and continues coughing while his head falls to Jason’s shoulder; Jay, after having a bullet hit his right shoulder a few months ago, being drenched in apple juice, and having a head collide with his sore wound, brings the lifted hand holding his knife onto the table, sticking a third of the utensil into the wood. All in all, a fantastic display of discipline and self control you’d expect of Batman and his Robins.

  
It takes Pennyworth’s polite cough to revive the inhabitants of the room, all thoroughly shaken, more so than after their last battle. And just like that, the invisible fog dissipated, and what was left was the aftermath of a disaster. It starts with Jason who, to his credit, just tries to pull the knife out of the table with his left hand and fails, so he proceeds to turn to a still coughing Dick, slap his back hard, and aggressively take the coat from the other man’s chair to dry the side of his head and hair, all while simmering with a tension they all knew but noticed only by Alfred, since the others were no longer paying attention. Dick, now red in the face and breathing heavily, looks mournfully at Jason, but has the sense to say nothing and just stands up, wide eyed and with a slight limp, to get juice from the fridge. Damian, visually composed and scowling like the devil himself just offered him some anchovy ice cream, crosses his arms and stares at the knife lodged on the table, slowly bringing his leg to the ground without a sound. Tim’s head snaps to look at his phone, now drenched in sauce and with the (thankfully waterproof) screen showing the newest post about Red Robin on a Twitter account entirely dedicated to Gotham vigilante memes; he emits a sound he refuses to call a whimper, and carefully snatches the device with two fingers. And Bruce, with all the grace of a swan who just fell into a river of melted cheese, aristocratically picks up the upturned wine glass and sips the two remaining milliliters of drink left in the glass.

  
The countryside getaway was going to be as relaxing as a zoo trip with a group of grade schoolers who encounter furries on the way, eh? Alfred resigned himself to clean up the premises and try to fix the nock caused by the cutlery later, leaving the room of disgruntled bats to mentally process the news.

**Author's Note:**

> Incoming tangent: I first really met these characters when I looked into the AO3 stats out of sheer boredom and lack of desire to do better things with my time, during such exploration I decided to delve deeper into a relationship tag that I never heard of: JayDick. After reading a decent amount of fics I decided to look at a few wiki pages and stuff to familiarize myself with the batfam and the fact that I didn’t know that the Robin mantle was a thing that had been passed down to multiple people in canon. After that I just kept reading stuff on the tag for funsies, so I’d say I’m somewhat, sorta, kinda, not really “qualified” to write characterization of these dudes. All this to say: I have no idea as to what’s happening in canon currently, I’m mostly familiar with past relevant events in the timeline, and I’m here because my brain decided to make me dream some wacky shit and my pals on Twitter encouraged me to write said shit down, so here I am, writing just for funsies. Aaaaanyways, thanks for reading, bro!


End file.
